Five Things I Know About Me

✓ FIVE things that I’m excited about currently:

Total lunar eclipse —
when the moon is at its closest to the center of the Earth’s shadow. November 8 brings us a total lunar eclipse and I’ll be watching with a monocular. Check it out NOW under the Stargazing News in the StarWalk2 app or on this link:

https://starwalk.space/en/news/what-is-a-lunar-eclipse

ZOOM. 
There is no excuse why I can’t roll out of bed and land in an AA meeting to get my head straight, just for today. To attend a meeting:
Zoom Meeting Link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/5697434072?pwd=UktXNmtJb2gveks3SjJDdmYzUVRrQT09
Meeting ID: 569-743-4072
Password: 0610

Podcasts.
I eavesdrop on Krista Tippet’s conversations, like with Eugene Peterson, and I imagine with stories on This American Life such as
• When the Beasts Come Marching In (hungry like a USDA Custer Wolf, Weeknight at Bernie’s Buzz Winkle the Moose),
• Captain’s Log (Cookies and Monsters),
• Fiasco! (Opening Night)
• Living Without, (Prologue, do you hear what I hear?, The Journalism of Deprivation, The Call of the Great Indoors, Tin Man),
• Invisible Made Visible (does a bear hit in the woods?),
• Batman
•

I Dream A Highway.
“My favorite song from Gillian Welch is “I Dream A Highway.” It’s a fourteen-minute song, long, languorous lines drawled out over elongated verses.
The first time I heard it, I was transfixed. I sat at my table — it was on the radio and I was cleaning the kitchen after a party. I turned out the lights and listened to the song in the dark. Ever since, I have turned to the song from time to time, always with the lights off, always with my eyes closed. It’s a song of extraordinary longing… The voice in the song wonders what will sustain her through a long winter, and she dreams of a highway.”
// Pádraig Ó Tuama
host of Poetry Unbound

Bear!
My eyewitness account of three black bears passing through the historic nature trail in Gatlinburg, TN, was captured on camera. Bears are the poster child of East Tennessee. A college classmate landed several photographs of a formidable grizzly bear in action, a moose passing through and an owl diving for prey in our alumni magazine. That large bodied bear would look terrible in  charcoal.

Sunrise.
I strongly believe that the first few hours of sunlight are golden, and I make it a priority to sit outside an hour before and after sunrise with a cup of hot tea and an electric blanket.

✓ One of the FIVE things I have changed my mind on is:

Art Workshops.
It’s about learning and enjoying the day, right? So, I created a gallery for art workshops in WordPress.
For G1063 God G2316 hath G1325 not G3756 given G1325 us G2254 the spirit G4151 of fear G1167; but G235 of power G1411, and G2532 of love G26, and G2532 of a sound mind G4995.
// 2 Timothy 1:7

Drinking black tea. For 12 months I stopped drinking black tea, a recommendation by naturopaths. Nothing changed because it is a lifestyle modification for lifestyle diseases. I like myself better with a cup of caffeine in the morning.

Faith. I use to think that I didn’t have enough faith to be healed. Maybe, I have enough faith not to be healed.

Calling my maternal grandmother on a daily basis.  She has a wealth of knowledge to share with me on gardening and my mother.

Disease Modifying Drugs. I have changed my mind about restarting medical treatment for MS. Cognitive distortions have held me back, and, like Naaman, I want to heal myself in my own way, just like that 💥 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-to-recognize-and-tame-your-cognitive-distortions-202205042738

✓ FIVE absurd, stupid things I still do include

Announce “Christmas lights to the right” at each light sighting, even when it’s clearly to the left and not Christmas.

Voice Command. I take notes on my phone on the Note Everything app through voice command and I laugh at the translations. I don’t think it understands that word I say.

Food restriction.  When eating out, I eat only half the meal and take the other half home for another meal. Thank you mom for always splitting your meals with me.

Keeping Time. With a stopwatch on the table, I time the peel of a Navel orange — in 48 seconds. Sumas and Cuties don’t count since I can peel these oranges easily with my fingers.

Obituary. Looking up the cause of death of dead people. I know it’s morbid, but it’s like telling the future.

Spelling bee. Spelling words out loud when I don’t want the dogs to go berserk. R-i-d-e.

§tacy §weeney